Author's Note: Okay, here's another one; I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to leave reviews & such.
"Shhhh! You'll wake them!"
"Get my scroll Sis! I need a picture of this!"
Blake groaned groggily as she was further disturbed by a digital shutter noise and a bright flash observed through her stubbornly shut eyelids, It's too early… What are they doing up?
"They're so cute!"
With another groan, Blake finally gave in and blinked her eyes open. It was still fairly dark in the room; none of the lights were on, and the sun hadn't yet fully risen above the horizon. She was dimly aware that, across the room, Weiss was also still asleep in her bed, but the same could unfortunately not be said for Ruby and Yang. No, Yang was holding up her scroll to take pictures and Ruby was doing her best to restrain her glee.
"What's… what's going on? You two are never up before me…" Blake rubbed sleep from her eyes with one hand, and tried to push herself up in her bed with the other.
"Maybe it's 'cause you two were up late last night," Yang said with a suggestive smirk.
"I got up for a drink and saw you," Ruby clarified, "and I kinda maybe sorta might've woke Yang…"
"Us two?" Blake blinked a few times, and then noticed the arms wrapped around her waist, holding her down onto the bed, "Mina?!"
The hitherto unconscious Mina jerked slightly at the sudden exclamation, "Dearest… It is much too early…"
"W-What are you doing in my bed?"
Mina tightened her sleepy embrace with a tired groan, pressing herself firmly to Blake's back, "I got cold…"
Mina's typical sleep habits were peculiar once; much as she was fond of doing crunches whilst hanging upside-down in the gym, she generally slept in a similar position, having had a pull-up bar on the wall of Team RWBY's dorm for that reason. Blake had always wondered about this habit, thinking that anyone else would have very quickly suffered serious blood-rush doing such, but it never seemed to bother Mina. The bat-Faunus would shrug and pass it off as a consequence of chronic low blood pressure, but Blake suspected that it owed more to her animal traits. Despite this though, Mina would never miss a chance to cuddle up when invited, and apparently when not invited as well…
"Wait, so you seriously didn't know she was there?" Yang demanded, unbelieving, "How the hell do you wind up spooning without noticing?"
"Perhaps habit?" Mina offered groggily as she nuzzled into Blake's back and closed her heavily lidded eyes again.
"Habit huh?"
"I-, um… Well you see, in the White Fang…"
"No need for the saucy details Blake," Yang's grin broadened, gesturing vaguely in her sister's direction, "We've got impressionable ears around,"
Wide awake now, Blake sighed, and made to pry Mina's hands off of her stomach and stood up from her bed, shaking her head, "Honestly…"
"I know she loves you and all that," Yang began, "But I don't think I've ever seen her that… clingy…"
"Only…" Blake paused to consider her words carefully, "Only when she's tired," She smiled fondly as a not-quite conscious Mina adjusted on the bed to rest her head in the crook of her arm rather than grabbing for the pillow, "It's almost like her clock goes back ten years while she sleeps,"
"So you two were all cuddle-cuddle since you were kids huh?' Yang's sinister grin broadened, and she continued before Blake could object, "That's cute, but she does not look seven,"
"Well no, Yang, it was a figure of…" Blake was suddenly very aware of the fact that Mina's choice of sleepwear that evening consisted solely of a dangerously short negligee whose shortness was done no favors by her tendency to curl up as she slept, "A figure of… uh…"
"Speech?" Ruby suggested helpfully.
"Uh… yeah… that…" Blake acknowledged before shaking her head and reaching down to pull the covers over Mina, all the way up to her shoulders; the two of them would have to have a serious talk about translucent nightwear…
"Whatcha doin' that for?" Yang asked.
"Mina's too tired to think about covering herself… and someone needs to worry about her modesty-,"
"No, I meant, why don't you just wake her? We're all-, well most of us are-,"
"WOULD YOU DOLTS SHUT UP!"
"Awake…" Yang finished, albeit at considerably lower volume.
"Oh… Blake whispered back, "Well… Mina's not a morning person…"
"She always seems fine when you get to breakfast," Ruby tilted her head in puzzlement.
"That's… That's because she always feeds before I let her leave the room… she'd be extremely groggy the whole day otherwise…"
"Oh…"
Blake walked over to the mini-fridge that had been recently installed in the corner by the head of Blake and Yang's bunk bed, opening it and pulling out one of the chilled packs of crimson liquid, "She can only get so much from that tomato juice she drinks when the rest of us are eating…"
The room went quiet.
Moving over to her dresser to pull out her and Mina's uniforms, Blake continued after the pause, "You guys don't need to wait for us; I understand if it weirds you out."
"No… It's okay…" Ruby looked away, slightly ashamed of herself, "I never thought to wait for you… sorry…"
"Don't be, Ruby; I deliberately stay behind," Blake assured her leader, "But I would have thought the blood thing would be what bothered you…"
Ruby shook her head quickly, "She's just a little different, right?"
"'Long as she doesn't go suckin' on my neck again," Yang added with a shrug; That incident had been among the numerous things that Blake had forced Mina to apologize for after she'd come clean.
Blake sighed, with relief this time as she slid an arm into the sleeve of her uniform's blazer, "Thanks guys,"
"No problem-!"
"SHUT UP!"
"… Now who wants to get Weiss out of bed?"
At lunch later that day, Teams RWBY and JNPR sat at their usual table, Nora bugged Ren, Ruby, Weiss, Jaune, and Pyrrha carried on a conversation about the possibly self-aware nature of Professor Port's mustache, and Blake sat next to Mina, eating her tuna, giving her best effort not to blush as Yang quizzed Mina on subjects of an increasingly embarrassing nature. Mina, for her part, answered each and every one of them with a straight face, leaving Blake to redden for two.
"So Blake says you two have been… together… for a while…"
""Ten years, yes," Mina nodded.
"And you've been… together, together all that time?"
Mina paused for thought as she took a sip of her tomato juice, "Hmmm… in retrospect…" she nodded a bit, "That could be said to be the case…" She leaned over and rested her head on Blake's shoulder, "Officially however… just two years, I regret to say…"
"So you really hooked up at fifteen then?" Yang raised an eyebrow, shooting a quick glance to her little sister, who was absorbed in her own conversation, "So did you go all the way, right away or-?"
"Yang!" Blake dropped her fork, mortified.
"Oh it is fine dearest, I will not be embarrassed-,"
"You should!" Blake chided, "and I certainly am-,"
"So you have gone all the way…"
"Who told you that?"
"You did, just now," Yang smirked.
Blake could have pulled her own hair out, but thought better of it, opting instead to close her mouth and sit in silence, lest she cause a scene; hopefully then this conversation would go ignored by all not involved.
Once Blake had calmed herself, Mina sat up again to speak, "In answer to your question, Miss Xiao Long, no, we started with our first kiss,"
"Oh? And what was it like?" Yang pressed.
"I speak only for myself, of course," Mina leaned forward across the table, "My heart was hammering, the taste of her blood still fresh on my lips as our bodies pressed-,"
"Okay that's enough!" Blake gave up on the silent approach, "You're going to give her the wrong idea,"
"What? You afraid it'll get out that you like it rough?" Yang teased.
"I do not," Blake asserted, "I was cut up really bad after a mission Yang! It would have been a waste of blood so I let her take advantage-,"
"Oh really?" Yang cut her off, "So you're the sub then?"
"I-, Wait, WHAT?"
"What?" Yang asked with a mischievous look, "Come on Blake, you're clearly the more modest of the two of you; I mean, Mina's always the one making the moves, and you let her drink your blood!"
"Only once every other week," Mina lamented, "And only when I behave myself…"
Yang raised an eyebrow.
Mina looked pensive now, "No, Miss Xiao Long… I would not go so far as to describe Blake as-,"
"Then how far would you go?"
Blake sorely wanted to reach across the table and throttle her partner, but was spared the necessity to fall back on that option by Mina, "I find that I oft must needs take the initiative, if that is what you are asking, Miss Xiao Long… but speaking of initiative… How go your efforts to woo Clara?"
"She's stubborn," Yang replied, taking the bait much like, well… a cat chasing a laser pointer, "I mean, I totally got this, but…" She heaved a sigh.
Mina cracked a broad grin of her own now, "Well, if you're interested, something interesting came up when I was talking to her on my break last Saturday…"
"Really? What is it?" Yang was leaning halfway across the table, hands pressed flat to the surface.
Mina chuckled, "It seems that Clara is quite fond of the piano; do you play?"
Yang blinked a few times, "No… But I can learn, dammit!"
"I know Yang can be a pain, Mina but-,"
"It is true, Dearest; Clara is very interested in the piano,"
Yang scarfed down the last bit of her burger and stood, "Well Ladies, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta see about finding a piano. Don't get too kinky while I'm gone!"
Blake's palm met with her forehead, "Say it a little louder; I don't think that they heard you in Mistral,"
As Yang started for God only knew where, Ruby's attention was finally pulled from the conversation at the other end of the table, "Umm… Where's Yang going?"
"To learn the piano," Blake said dryly.
"Huh?"
"Apparently Clara loves it," Blake punctuated the sarcastic remark by shooting Mina a dirty look so as to distance herself from responsibility for the cruel joke.
"It is true," Mina insisted, "Though admittedly I may have omitted certain… details…"
"Such as?"
"Well you see, the context of the conversation had less to do with our respective hobbies than our… preferences…"
"What do you… Oh God, what did you tell her?"
"I didn't mention your name, do not worry dearest; for all Clara knows, I have a boyfriend,"
"What. Did. You. Tell. Her."
Mina let slip a mock sigh of defeat, "Very well dearest, but do you really want all the wonderfully lecherous details, given present company?" She pointed behind Blake for effect.
The whole table had gone quiet and was staring, mixed expressions of curiosity and embarrassment on their faces.
"We will talk about this later," Blake said sternly, "As well as a few other things,"
"Oh?" Mina cocked her head, "Have you preferences to share with me?"
"That is absolutely not what I meant and you know it,"
"Of course dearest," Mina smiled, pecking Blake on the cheek, "Whatever the case though, you will forgive me,"
"And what makes you so sure of that?" Blake challenged; Mina was right of course, but Blake felt responsible for training Mina to behave herself.
"Because, Dearest," Mina responded, her grin broadening to reveal one of her fangs, as she produced a colorful slip of laminated paper, "Here in my hand I hold a voucher for a free entrée and dessert at the Summer Blossom…"
Blake wasn't impressed, "That might work on Yang-,"
"And…" Mina interrupted the rebuttal, "It just so happens that I have it on good authority that this Saturday is swimsuit day…"
"…"
"My shift begins at noon," Mina added with a slightly sing-song quality to her voice.
Blake grabbed the voucher, "…Can't have Yang getting herself into trouble…"
"Of course not, Dearest,"
As Yang walked back towards RWBY's dorm dejectedly after having been unable to convince Ms. Goodwitch that a grand piano would be a valuable asset to the Beacon curriculum, her eye was caught by a familiar image on the cover of a magazine that had been left out on a coffee table in the dorm's common room. Normally she wouldn't bother with such things – it was just a third-rate gossip tabloid after all- but this particular issue of the Vale inquirer featured certain dark-haired Faunus with pale blue eyes.
"Is that…?"